Clear coat a semi mirror finish enclosure. Will the clear coat stick to it?

[nonost]

Hi everyone. I was thinking about sand/polish a couple 1590A enclosures. I don't need a mirror finish, I just need them to be not that grey, dark and rough since I'm going to do some drawings with acrylic or enamel paints. My idea was to clear coat them after the art it's done but...where the clear coat is going to stick to? If I stop with the sanding at 600 grit, do you think it will stick to it?

Feel free to share any experience with that stuff, I will appreciate it!

[Travis]

Generally speaking a finish will like to stick to a surface that isn’t sanded beyond like 220. Once you go past 220, the surface can become too slick for the finish

I’d say 600 is way too far

[BetterOffShred]

Yeah I use a 160 sponge

Works great.  It's nice enough to clear coat the bare aluminum for kind of a military box type vibe. Maybe not shiny enough for what you're looking for

[music6000]

 Hi
   When I do Brushed finish enclosures with 120 grit, I use a product in a Spray can called Dupli Color Adhesion Promoter which is designed for spraying Plastic prior to Primer. It dries Clear with a slight tackiness to it, I then spray auto Clear Coat over it, Sticks like Sh- t to a Blanket.

Cheers music6000

[Travis]

That’s a great idea, though 120 is pretty coarse and could be sprayed directly. At 600, I’m not sure the primer really has anything to stick to unless it eats into the metal a bit. Guess one would have to try to really know for sure

[rocket88]

Well I paint all my enclosures after being danced to  800-1000 grit. This goes for just clear or color. I haven't had an adhesion issue yet. The key is to make sure the surface is clean and oil free. So I wash the enclosure with soap and water, then go over it with alcohol prior to laying down a coat of paint. No special tricks or products. I do use automotive paint and bake each coat.

[Travis]

There’s certainly no reason it CAN’T be done, the finish will just be more prone to chipping the smoother the surface under the paint.

Thing is, if you drop the pedal the paint will get dinged no matter how you sand it lol. So given that fact, and the fact that the final look is really cool, maybe it’s a good idea after all

[nonost]

Travis wrote

Generally speaking a finish will like to stick to a surface that isn’t sanded beyond like 220. Once you go past 220, the surface can become too slick for the finish

I've sanded one with 120, 240 and 400 grit and the other one with 120 and 240. And to be honest I don't see the former looking much prettier or nicer...I even went through 120,240,400,800 and 1000 with one of the enclosure's backside and I was a little dissapointed with the result...I  was expecting more shine from it. Maybe the Tayda enclosures have somenthing to do about it. Well, the good thing is that with 120-240 the enclosure looks good enough for me :)

I'll tell you how they both behave.

rocket88 wrote

Well I paint all my enclosures after being danced to  800-1000 grit. This goes for just clear or color. I haven't had an adhesion issue yet. The key is to make sure the surface is clean and oil free. So I wash the enclosure with soap and water, then go over it with alcohol prior to laying down a coat of paint. No special tricks or products. I do use automotive paint and bake each coat.

That sounds good. If the clear sticks well I will try to clear coat it with higher grits. I've wahsed it soap and clean it with acetone as usual before I did the drawings and used gloves in order to keep it clean for the clear coat.

BetterOffShred wrote

Yeah I use a 160 sponge

Works great.  It's nice enough to clear coat the bare aluminum for kind of a military box type vibe. Maybe not shiny enough for what you're looking for

With 240 looks nicer than I thought! Offtopic: are you from Arkham? ;)

[nonost]

Ey! The problem is that I want to do some drawings on the enclosure...But I note down the pre-primer in case I'll need it in the future. Thanks music6000

[rocket88]

as long as the paint you use to do your design will work with the clear it will work. to get a mirror finish, and i mean try polished mirror finish you're going to have to sand all the way up to 3000-5000 grit, buff, and polish the enclosure. then wash the enclosure, use something like acetone to remove and residue. you can then paint your design, then wash it, then clear it.

not advertising my pedals, but here's an example of one of my cleared bare enclosures. granted the design is etched so there's some dots from where the acid got through the mask when etching, but the same principle applies. it's been sanded to 800 or 1000 grit before it was cleared. my enclosures are the same ones tayda sells, but i get them from their distributor.

[Sensei Tim]

What Rickey said.

I’ve polished aluminum to a mirror finish with a cutting compound and buffing wheel and had no problem with clearcoat sticking to it.  If you don’t clearcoat it it will eventually oxidize and look horrible.

[nonost]

That looks pretty pretty good to me. I've sprayed two coats of clear coat and it seems to have worked. Next time I will stop at higher grits like you do in order to get a smoother and cleaner surface.

I will post pictures though I not very happy with my glossy clear coats. If you look closely you can see like little holes and not a flat surface. Not actually holes but more like dimples. That's strange because I have no problems with matte and satinated finish, same brand.

Thanks!

[nonost]

Hi. That's great, so far I don't want to get a mirror finish since I only have sandpapers and I don't feel like getting more stuff. But I know I eventually will do some mirror finish. That buffing compound thing what exactly is? I'm trying to translate it to spanish for when the moment comes but nothing make sense to me.

Damn I started a few months ago just doing some diy kits without knowing that will end up doing the drilling/primer/painting/clear coating/sanding/drawings and all the things that processes involve. It's crazy.